Along Came Love (18 page)

Cal and Bertha walked up and hugged Selma,
"Your part of this family too, now, Selma, it's perfectly all
right…"

She smiled and shook their hands.

As Cal got to the door he turned and glanced
at Clint, "You'll call us if there is any change. Or anything…"

"Of course I will, Dad, now go home and get
some rest."

When they were all gone but her and Clint,
Selma glanced up at him with a smile, "I'll try not to be too
long…"

He winked, "Take your time, Selma. And
thanks…for being here…"

Selma reached up to peck him on the cheek
then walked slowly back down the hallway. Samantha had gone home
only on her insistence. She knew Samantha would be up all night and
worry and fret over this. She wanted to help the situation if she
could.

She opened the door to his room. It was quiet
only a small light on above the montiors disturbed the night. The
machines beeped quietly, and reassuringly.

She stared at Jake for a long time, and then
she took his hand in hers and held it. She marveled at how big his
hands were compared to her own. She smiled sadly down into his
face, moved his hair away and leaned to kiss him on the cheek.

"You're a handsome galute…you know that?"
Selma smiled.

"My Samantha, she's waited a long time for
the right man to come along. She's known heartbreak too. I guess
life wouldn't be much without a little along the way, huh?

"Well now Jake, it's Selma. And just so you
know. We aren't going to walk off and leave you by yourself.
Clint's out in the waiting room, he was the one that brought

it to our attention that we couldn't all walk
off and leave you up here alone. I agree. I wouldn't want to be
alone either. My Samantha stayed with me through the rough parts.
And…I'm not much on hospitals and doctors. That's why I try to stay
healthy, but at my age, it's a gamble. But you, why you can't even
speak for yourself right now. You can't tell those hard headed know
it all doctors that you need your family here. But luckily you
don't have to, because we are here. And I know too, that it's
Samantha that you want to see and be with so much, but she's not in
the best of shape right now. She's sorta in shock, seeing you this
way. She needs time to get over that so she can hold up. Women are
strong partners Jake, but sometimes when they get socked in the
belly with a good one, we need some recovery time. That's what I’m
giving her now.

"I didn't come back here to talk about me
though. I came to talk about you and your hopes and your dreams and
my daughter. I know you love her. I can see it in your eyes every
time you come to see her. And I'm so glad I could burst with the
happiness this gives me.

"You're a good man, Jake. And I'm so sorry
this had to happen. But I've got to set you straight about all this
right now. We expect you to snap out of this. You can't lie here
forever and put life on hold. You've got souls to save, and good
things to do, and Samantha wants to help you do those things.
You've opened up a whole new world for her, Jake. And you can't let
her down.

"My whole life, my dream was for my daughter
to meet someone as kind, loving, and giving as you. Someone with
gumption, backbone, and smarts. You are all those things. You are
my dream come true, Jake. And I'll not have you spoiling it for
us.

"So make up your mind to get well. Make up
your mind to return to us, Jake. We need you. I'm not strong enough
to help Samantha through a crisis, so that's out of the question.
You have to beat this. You sorta have to help me. You have to fight
it. You have to have the will to make it. God will do the rest. But
just remember that.

"I'm a fighter Jake, that's why I'm still
alive. And I feel in my bones, that you are too. That's why I
expect you to snap out of this. Come back to us Jake, you are still
needed here.

"And another thing, when you wake up, you are
gonna find out that the truck driver died. And knowing you like I
do, you'll blame yourself. But the police have already arrested the
ones responsible for all of this. It's taken care of. And it wasn't
your fault. You have no guilt in this. So don't even go there. He's
already in God's hands. So I want you to concentrate on getting
better Jake.

"Are you listening?" she squeezed his hand.
"You are surrounded by people who love you. Who would be devastated
if anything went wrong. So you can't let it. Just like I couldn't
give up when I had my cancer. I had to learn to be strong, 'cause
my Samantha, it would have made a recluse out of her. I know
that.

"So you just make up your mind right now. I'm
telling you, just like your mother would have if she'd have lived.
You have to get better, not for yourself, because Lord knows where
you are going afterwards, but for all the ones that love you so.
I've never seen a family so pulled together, so loving. You have
everything to live for. And your living will make me stronger too.
So you and I and even your brother out there in the waiting room,
we all know what death is about, but I feel in my heart it isn't
your time to die. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I think
you have much work to do.

"So hone up, hon, get tough, and come back to
us. We all need you…" she cried a tear, and then she smiled. "These
aren't tears of sorrow, they are tears of gladness. I wanted to
tell you how happy you made me feel to confess myself to you. Don't
ask me how I knew it, but I did. How happy you've made my daughter,
and the family you can build together…you are very important, and
we want you back. And the power of prayer can bring you back to us,
we know that. So if you hear me…if you sense something…anything,
hang on, 'cause we all love you…"

She laid his hand down, and backed away. A
smile was on her lips as she lifted her eyes to the ceiling and
prayed aloud for him, then slowly walked out of the room, the only
noise was the heart monitor, it was ticking very steadily.

"How is he?" Clint asked Selma as she came
down the hallway.

"The same sweetie. Get used to it, he'll be
the same a while. But I think he's going to mend just fine.
Especially with people like you, me, Samnatha and your dad. Your
whole family will be here, and what's left of mine will be. We
won't let anything happen to him, now will we?" Selma smiled.

Clint nodded, "You are quite a woman, Selma.
You going home now?"

"Yes, I need to check on Samantha and make
sure she is alright. She's had a shock. But she'll survive this
too. You staying?"

"Yeah, I'll be here till morning." Clint
nodded.

"Want me to bring you something?" Selma
offered.

"Nah, I had supper and I'll get some coffee
later." Clint said.

"You're not worried about this are you?"
Selma asked curiously.

"Nah, but it does bring back the time I was
in and I remember how I felt. Not having family near can be
traumatic when you are used to it." Clint affirmed. "Because of his
job, Jake's been away more lately and well, I aim to see he knows
we are here for him."

"You are absolutely right, honey. But don't
wear yourself out, okay?"

"I promise," Clint winked at her as she
left.

He ambled back to the room where he heard all
the monitors and beeps going on. Boy that brought back memories. He
remembered those beeps. He remembered how lonely how desolute he
felt and he didn't want his brother going through that for a
minute.

He remembered the bruises and the ugliness of
his own accident. He felt the scar down his leg and grimaced. It
still bothered him from time to time, reminding him.

He walked over to his brother, stood staring
down at him and tears sprang to his eyes. "Man, you know how to
kick a guy in the gut, bro. Dad told me about what you were fixing
to do, and I gotta tell you, that makes me about as proud of you as
I can get. I mean, yeah, we all had it figured wrong. And law is
good, but I mean preaching…Mom sure would have loved to seen and
heard that." Clint swallowed.

"I want to warn you, you are gonna be in some
pain when you wake up, you'll almost wish you were asleep again.
There will be therapy. But don't you fret, I've been through a lot
of it and you'll make it just fine. We'll help you. You know we are
always there for each other. Sammie Jo wanted to come, but we told
her that for now, it was best she stay home. But she said she
wanted to come up here and do some of her studies so you could see
how much she's improved. She said to tell you she needs you and to
hurry and get well."

Suddenly he came around to sit beside him and
propped his feet up on the little stool beside the bed. "You just
relax and get well. Concentrate on getting well. I've read where
you can hear when you're in a coma, but you can't talk. If that's
true I'll watch what I say, but I want to keep you company. I'll
try not to bore you too much. I might get wound up about a bull or
something but you can nudge me if I do, right? Well, maybe. I want
you to know that bein' here with you, well, I like it. I like it
just fine. I'm gonna entertain you with a few rodeo jokes, might
even sing a bit. Okay, okay, so I won't sing. But I want to make it
clear you are not alone. You gotta be here, then I gotta be here.
Understand. Do you realize this is the first time you've never been
able to talk back to me. Yep, I like that. Now let's see. Oh….just
so you know, I'm going over to Peaceful and take care of everything
for you. I'm sure they are going to miss you like crazy there, but
they'll just have to come visit. Deke said not to worry about the
truck he needs to buy a new one anyway. It was insured."

On and on he talked way into the night and
listened to the monitors beeping and watched all the nurses come in
and check on him, change his bags out and give him more
medicine.

Nearly daylight a doctor came in and
introduced himself. He told Clint that things probably wouldn’t
change right away. That if he didn't wake up in a couple of weeks
then it would be time to start treating things differently. Clint
understood. He got all the vital information to take home with
him.

Cal came and relieved him the next morning.
He was worried, his dad always got a wrinkle in his forehead when
he worried too much. Clint wished he could wipe it away for him,
but he didn't feel all that great himself. Not yet. But somehow,
someway, he was going to help Jake through this.

"How's he doing?"

"The same…I'm afraid there isn't going to be
any changes for a while, dad."

Cal nodded. "Samantha's coming by before she
goes to work…"

"I figured she would" Clint smiled.

"She's so broke up about it…" Cal said.

"Don't stay too long dad…" Clint advised. "We
don't want you in here beside him."

"I won't. We already got it figured how we're
going to take turns so he isn't alone." Cal smiled. "Just like you
said. And Clint, I’m so sorry we weren't there for you. I wanted
you to know…"

"Hey, you didn't know. That was my own fault.
I hope you got me a slot in there…"

"Sure, we didn't leave anyone out, not even
the kids. You know, the kids are crazy about Jake, and can't wait
to come see him."

"You think it's wise?" Clint asked.

"I don't think we could stop them. Sammie Jo
has already put her time slot in, right after school, she says, and
Clay with her. Little Clint is coming with Abby the first time, the
others will have to come with us when we come."

"I guess kids are a big part of our life…"
Clint chuckled.

After a day or two things even out where no
one was put out to stop off and visit for a while and the nurses
finally got used to seeing the Travers bunch coming in and out.
Some would shake their heads, others would smile and laugh.

Samantha went in every day, morning and
night, talking to him about what she'd done at their new home, and
how she had worked that day and all the progress he was making. She
helped him exercise his legs by moving them up and down everyday
and kept looking for signs of him getting better. But each day was
the same. It was heartbreaking that he was so still. She's never
seen him this still and it scared her.

Thanks to her mother's great advice she
brought tapes of some of his favorite music, and stopped off every
morning with a couple of chocolate covered donuts, Jake loved them
and from her mother's instructions, she would place them just in
front of his nose, in case he could smell and remember the flavor
of them.

Selma herself read scriptures from the bible
to him. Cal caught him up on all the goings on at the ranch. Rusty
shared some of his favorite times with the kids with him, hoping to
see a smile on his rugged face. Deke unaware brought the smell of
horseflesh, and the aroma of fresh hay being cut. He'd talk to him
in low soothing tones and help him move around on the bed. Despite
the tubes coming in and out of him, they were able to do mild leg
exercises, and roll him over and sit him up every day.

But Clint brought something entirely
different to him.

"Well bro, I stopped off at the church and
prayed for you, talked to the Reverend all about you. He's so
anxious for you to come back, he needs you. He's really looking
forward to retiring, but he said he won't till you walk out of this
hospital and are on the road to full recovery. I—also got saved
bro. Yeah…it just happened. Never was so happy in my life and
needless to say Abby is beside herself about it. 'Couse she was
saved a long time ago. I don't really know how it happened. I was
just there at the church and it was like all the burdens lifted at
once. Guess I owe it to you and the Reverend, he showed me how
prayer can do so much, and I believe it. Don't tell anyone but I
got this whole big mess of people on line praying for your full
recovery. I believe it works. And I don't want you trying to prove
me wrong, okay?"